Presidency Message
Growing through Adversity
by Theresa M. Sneed
Thank you for your vote of confidence in the ANWA presidency. We warmly welcome the opportunity to serve you and look forward to great success in the upcoming year.
We extend a hand of fellowship to the new members of the ANWA General Presidency. Marsha Ward, founder of ANWA and most recently the General Secretary/Treasurer, has accepted the newly formed office of General Membership Secretary. Marsha's responsibilities have always been many and varied, and along with the new office of
Membership Secretary, she will remain the ANWA-Critique List Owner and Webmistress of the ANWA website. We gratefully acknowledge Margaret Turley in the office of General Secretary and Connie White in the office of General Treasurer. Welcome!
As we say goodbye to 2002, we wonder what might lie ahead in 2003. What joys, sorrows, challenges, and victories; what will change or be different? What will remain the same, safe, secure and unchanged?
Having personally faced the sudden loss of loved ones, the financial crush of unexpected unemployment, the anxiety and emotional whirlwind of seriously ill children, and the unfathomable fear of repercussions stemming from those who initiated 9/11, what joy or victory can ever be had from such adversities? What joy or victory indeed...
There is one who watches all from His throne on high; His gaze never veers--neither to the right nor to the left--but is constantly fixed upon us, His children. We are not spoken of by Him as His mere creations...but His children...all that He has He would give to us, as a father would to a child. And as any wise father would, much that He has, He must retain from us.
What personal growth would be lost if everything were given us? How can a child learn to be honest without a trial of integrity? How does one learn to forgive without having been given an offense to forgive? How would we learn to love one another if there were no need to serve each other? What proof do we have of our loyalty to our Father without a trial of our faith? Adversity is the great sifter of wheat, the refiner's fire, the very catalyst of change.
I have recognized tremendous growth in our sisters over the many years I've been in ANWA. It never ceases to amaze me as each year passes, how many more of our sisters who began with a simple desire to write are now full-fledged, published authors. I marvel how at each ANWA Summer Retreat usually about two sisters have published their first book. I remember sitting up late with Jeni Grossman three
summers ago, into the early hours of the morning, laughing, listening, and coming to love her through our shared ANWA experiences. And look at her now! Her books are great successes and it doesn't surprise me a bit! She could tell you about adversity and how it has shaped her life. She could tell you all about it, for she has not been spared--thankfully and gratefully. I think that even Jeni would tell you that her greatest successes are probably not her published books, but her personal victories through adversities.
Some of the sweetest and most poignant articles that I have read or heard ANWA sisters share, have originated from those of you who have recognized a need in someone else, been able to relate to that need through your own struggles, and have created a poem or a letter of encouragement for that individual. Those are the greatest success stories.
Does it really matter what lies ahead in 2003? Of course it does...but of greater importance is how we allow ourselves, our faith, hope and our charity and our desire and talent to write, to grow through adversity.
With Love,
Theresa M. Sneed
ANWA General President
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